U.S. patent application number 11/002057 was filed with the patent office on 2006-06-08 for system for predictively managing communication attributes of unmanned vehicles.
This patent application is currently assigned to Lockheed Martin Corporation. Invention is credited to Stephen J. DeMarco, Robert J. Szczerba.
Application Number | 20060121418 11/002057 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36574712 |
Filed Date | 2006-06-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060121418 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
DeMarco; Stephen J. ; et
al. |
June 8, 2006 |
System for predictively managing communication attributes of
unmanned vehicles
Abstract
A system predictively determines data transmitted within a
wireless network in accordance with a mission plan and changes to
the mission plan. The system includes a first team member and a
second team member. The first team member includes a first module
for evaluating the changes to the mission plan encountered by the
first team member and determining whether to transmit information
of the change to the second team member. The first team member
further includes a second module containing rules for evaluating
changes to the mission plan encountered by the first team member.
The first module utilizes the rules of the second module to
predictively alter the mission plan.
Inventors: |
DeMarco; Stephen J.;
(Binghamton, NY) ; Szczerba; Robert J.; (Endicott,
NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
TAROLLI, SUNDHEIM, COVELL & TUMMINO L.L.P.
1300 EAST NINTH STREET, SUITE 1700
CLEVEVLAND
OH
44114
US
|
Assignee: |
Lockheed Martin Corporation
|
Family ID: |
36574712 |
Appl. No.: |
11/002057 |
Filed: |
December 2, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
434/11 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G05D 1/0088 20130101;
F41H 13/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
434/011 |
International
Class: |
F41A 33/00 20060101
F41A033/00 |
Claims
1. A system for predictively determining data transmitted within a
wireless network in accordance with a mission plan and changes to
the mission plan, said system comprising: a first team member; and
a second team member, said first team member including a first
module for evaluating the changes to the mission plan encountered
by said first team member and determining whether to transmit
information of the change to said second team member, said first
team member further including a second module containing rules for
evaluating changes to the mission plan encountered by said first
team member, said first module further utilizing the rules of the
second module to predictively alter the mission plan.
2. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first module
executes a mission replan for said first team member.
3. The system as set forth in claim 2 wherein the mission replan is
evaluated by the first module against an overall mission plan.
4. The system as set forth in claim 3 wherein said first team
member transmits the mission replan to said second team member.
5. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a common
relevant operating picture of the mission plan from which a change
to the mission plan may be initiated.
6. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein transmission of data
between said first team member and said second team member is
conducted over a radio frequency communication link.
7. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein only changes to the
mission plan that impact the mission plan beyond a predetermined
threshold, set either prior to the start of a mission or revised
during a mission execution, of said second team member are
communicated to said second team member by said first team
member.
8. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first team
member further includes a predictive mission-planning engine for
predicting a mission plan of said second team member.
9. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first team
member includes a common relevant operating picture of the mission
plan from which a change to the mission plan may be initiated, said
common relevant operating picture having a first part and a second
part, said first part being identical to a part of said second team
member.
10. The system as set forth in claim 9 wherein said second part is
unique to said first team member.
11. A system for predictively determining data transmitted by an
entity in accordance with a mission plan and changes to the mission
plan, said system comprising: a mission planning subsystem for
executing a current mission plan, said mission planning subsystem
further predictively developing alternative mission plans in order
to evaluate potential mission changes; a communication subsystem
for communicating changes to the mission plan to another entity;
and an evaluator subsystem including an evaluator and a rules
engine, said evaluator receiving information concerning a change
encountered by the entity and utilizing rules from said rules
engine for determining whether to communicate the change to the
other entity.
12. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a common
relevant operating picture of the mission plan and changes to the
mission plan from which a change to the mission plan may be
initiated.
13. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said rules engine
is preloaded with configurable rules prior to a beginning of a
mission.
14. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said rules engine
may change the configurable rules during the mission.
15. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said evaluator
subsystem terminates an evaluation if said evaluator determines a
change to the mission to be insignificant.
16. A computer program product for determining data transmitted by
an entity in accordance with a mission plan and changes to the
mission plan, said computer program product comprising: a first
instruction for storing the mission plan in a common relevant
operating picture; a second instruction for evaluating a change to
the mission plan, said second instruction utilizing predetermined
rules; and a third instruction for utilizing said second
instruction for determining whether to communicate the change of
the mission plan to another entity.
17. The computer program product as set forth in claim 16 further
including a fourth instruction for determining not to communicate a
change of the mission plan to another entity.
18. The computer program product as set forth in claim 16 further
including a fourth instruction for determining to communicate a
change of the mission plan to another entity.
19. The computer program product as set forth in claim 16 further
including a fourth instruction for utilizing a rules engine to
execute said second instruction.
20. The computer program product as set forth in claim 16 further
including a fourth instruction for ignoring a change to the mission
plan.
Description
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a system for managing
unmanned vehicles, and more specifically, to a system for
predictively managing unmanned vehicles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Conventional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS) operate in
various environments and terrains. Future UAV teams are envisioned
to be highly autonomous, not requiring constant attention from a
control base station. These autonomous UAV teams will likely
communicate over a radio frequency link with the control base
station. If several autonomous UAVs are operating as part of a
team, these UAV team members will likely communicate with each
other over a communication network as well. These UAV members will
likely be required to inform each other of their respective and
absolute positions and flight plans so that they don't hit each
other and, since these UAV members are operating autonomously, to
continually adjust flight plans to react to the environment, the
terrain, and to enemy threats. Each UAV member in the team would
communicate at unpredictable times with other members of the team
asynchronously.
[0003] Members of such a team of UAVs would share the limited
network data rate capacity with each other, with other teams of
UAVs, and with other elements of the battle space. As a mission
unfolds, the changing battle and consequent communication needs of
each element of the force may change. The individual demands upon
the communications network aggregate and may use up all of the
available data rates such that the next separate demand would go
unfulfilled in the immediate time scale.
[0004] When a UAV team enters a battle area, its communication
demands may increase as the members collaboratively plan target
engagements and flight plans. The members may simultaneously
transmit and receive target tracks and flight plans that may
rapidly change. The UAV members of such a team further may conduct
collaborative sensing and targeting and update common relevant
operational pictures (CROPs), command and control information, etc.
Additional demands may also be placed on the limited network data
rate capability by non-UAV elements of the battle space.
[0005] All of these simultaneous communication demands of the team
place stress on the communication network of the team by using up
the available data rate, or bandwidth. However, a network typically
has "quality of service" algorithms to react and reallocate network
resources to those UAV members using it the most. When this
happens, some of the UAV members receiving a lower allocation of
network resources will experience increased delays in their message
deliveries, lost packets of information, and other types of service
degradation (FIG. 1).
[0006] For example, assume that each UAV member needs a
communications channel with a data rate of 2,000 kilobits per
second (kbps) to transmit a 500 kilobit image file in 250
milliseconds (500/2,000). Typically, three images will be sent in
succession and this would take about 750 milliseconds. Add another
250 millisesconds for various intermediary processing tasks and the
entire process of transmitting and receiving the three images may
take 1,000 milliseconds, or 1 second. Thus, the communications
channel is entirely consumed by the transmission of these three
images for 1 second. Enlarge this concept to a team of five UAV
members sharing a communications network with a maximum
simultaneous capacity of 10,000 kilobits per second. This
communications network would be able to support the transmission of
five simultaneous three-image sets of files from these UAV members
to a base station. In "non-stressful" situations, this example
communication network's underlying data rate is sufficient to
support all five UAV members.
[0007] However, typically other conditions may restrict the
available data rate. Environmental conditions such as rain may
reduce the data rate. Enemy jamming may reduce the data rate. Other
friendly forces may consume the data rate of the same
communications network (FIG. 1).
[0008] Assume these situations occur and the actual data rate
available to the UAV team is only 5,000 kilobits per second. The
communications network would then handle only two sets of three
image files simultaneously. The network protocols would function in
a reactive manner to reallocate the data rates to the earliest
transmitted files, not necessarily the two most critical
transmitted files. Assume that this takes 250 milliseconds.
[0009] Consequently, there would be an additional 250 millisecond
delay before the communications network reallocates the available
data rates. Furthermore, a third, presumed less critical, set of
images would still be delayed with that third set possibly being
the most critical set.
[0010] Such a conventional system is reactive in nature. Services
are reallocated subsequent to the overload occurring within the
network. At best, there may be a temporary "bubble" of overload
before the qualities of service algorithms begin working. Sometimes
a UAV using the most available data rate may not be the UAV with
the highest priority, or critical mission need. At worst, the
degradation of communications may persist for a period that may
degrade the UAV team's critical mission effectiveness.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] A system in accordance with the present invention
predictively determines data transmitted within a wireless network
in accordance with a mission plan and changes to the mission plan.
The system includes a first team member and a second team member.
The first team member includes a first module for evaluating the
changes to the mission plan encountered by the first team member
and determining whether to transmit information of the change to
the second team member. The first team member further includes a
second module containing rules for evaluating changes to the
mission plan encountered by the first team member. The first module
utilizes the rules of the second module to predictively alter the
mission plan.
[0012] Another system in accordance with the present invention
predictively determines data transmitted by an entity in accordance
with a mission plan and changes to the mission plan. The system
includes a mission planning subsystem, a communication subsystem,
and an evaluator subsystem. The mission planning subsystem executes
a current mission plan. The mission planning subsystem further
predictively develops alternative mission plans in order to
evaluate potential mission changes. The communication subsystem
communicates changes to the mission plan to another entity. The
evaluator subsystem includes an evaluator and a rules engine. The
evaluator receives information concerning a change encountered by
the entity and utilizes rules from the rules engine for determining
whether to communicate the change to the other entity.
[0013] A computer program product in accordance with the present
invention determines data transmitted by an entity in accordance
with a mission plan and changes to the mission plan. The computer
program product includes a first instruction for storing the
mission plan in a common relevant operating picture, a second
instruction for evaluating a change to the mission plan, and a
third instruction for utilizing the second instruction for
determining whether to communicate the change of the mission plan
to another entity. The second instruction utilizes predetermined
rules.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] The foregoing and other features of the present invention
will become apparent to one skilled in the art to which the present
invention relates upon consideration of the following description
of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings,
wherein:
[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an example system in
accordance with the prior art;
[0016] FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of an example system in
accordance with the present invention; and
[0017] FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a network for use
with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF AN EXAMPLE EMBODIMENT
[0018] The following description of an example embodiment depicts
an example system of collaborative entities evaluating the impact
of the changes on a team's mission against a rules engine and a
predictive mission-planning engine. Only those changes containing
significant impacts to the team's mission, either imminent impacts
or longer-term threats to the mission (that cannot be easily
corrected by a localized mission replan), will be transmitted
between the collaborative entities. Unimportant changes will not be
transmitted. Furthermore, the transmissions will be prioritized and
scheduled to control the consumption of the bandwidth of a
predetermined communication channel.
[0019] The mission-planning engine of each entity may replan for
all entities involved within the collaborative framework. This may
provide a predictive mechanism for the mission plans of the team.
For example, a change may be unimportant to the mission of the
collaborative entities over the next five minutes, but may have a
major impact in thirty minutes. The converse may also be true.
[0020] A system in accordance with the present invention may
control priority, schedule, and timing of communications between a
collaborating team of unmanned vehicles (UAVs), or entities,
thereby providing a deterministic and efficient use of available
communication channels. Each entity operating on a modern
battlefield typically maintains an individual digital database of
relevant information concerning a mission plan, a flight plan,
environmental conditions, a 3-D map, locations of friends and foes,
condition of onboard stores, damage self-assessment, etc.
[0021] Teams of entities working collaboratively may need to share
at least some part of this information between themselves, as the
mission unfolds, as conditions change, and as plans are updated and
revised. The sharing and updating of this information may be
conducted over radio frequency communications links.
[0022] For example, consider a collaborative team of three Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAV1, UAV2, UAV3) flying at an altitude of 1,000
feet and separated from each other by 6,000 feet. UAV1 may sense an
anomaly, which could possibly be a target. UAV1 may make a
determination to investigate further. This determination may
initiate a series of radio frequency communications between the
three UAVs culminating in UAV1 transmitting a revised flight plan
to UAV2 and UAV3. UAV2 and UAV3 may acknowledge this change in the
flight plan of UAV1 back to UAV1. UAV1 then flies on the new flight
plan and investigates the anomaly more closely. This is a simple,
generic example analogous to the other classes of information
exchanges, described above, that may need to be communicated
between collaborating entities on a battlefield.
[0023] A conventional approach to communicating this data is to
transmit an entire updated file that contains all of the
information. However, transmission of all of this information may
consume all, or a significant amount, of an available
communications channel, leaving little bandwidth for the use of
other entities that might need to communicate simultaneously.
[0024] Another conventional approach is the transmission of only
the changed data. This reduces the amount of data transmitted and
mitigates consumption of the available communications channel.
However, the timing of such communications is still random and the
magnitude of the changed information being transmitted is still
uncontrolled. Therefore, the randomness of this approach may still
allow a communications channel to be completely blocked when
simultaneous transmission of large amounts of changed data are
transmitted simultaneously.
[0025] A system 10 in accordance with the present invention may
evaluate the impact of the changes occurring during a team's
mission against a rules engine 50 and a predictive mission-planning
engine 30 (FIG. 2). Only those changes containing significant
impacts to a team's mission, either imminent impacts or long-term
threats to the mission (that cannot be easily corrected by a
localized mission replan), may be transmitted between collaborative
entities such as UAV1, UAV2, and UAV3 described above. Changes
evaluated as unimportant may not be transmitted. Transmissions may
also be prioritized and scheduled to control consumption of the
bandwidth of a communications channel.
[0026] A predictive mission-planning engine 30 of each entity may
replan for all entities of the collaborative team of entities.
Since each mission-planning engine 30 determines an identical new
plan, the system 10 provides a predictive mechanism for a mission
plan of the entire team. For example, a change may be unimportant
to the mission of the set of collaborative entities over the next
five minutes, but will have a major impact within thirty minutes.
The converse may also be true.
[0027] The example system 10 may develop a set of algorithms that
interact with each other, a Common Relevant Operating Picture
(CROP) 20, a mission planning subsystem 30, and a communication
subsystem 60 (FIG. 2). The system 10 may include a Rules Engine 50
and an Evaluator 40. The CROP 20 may store a comprehensive mission
picture. The system 10 initiates changes in the CROP 20 first. Each
entity may contain a decentralized CROP 20 that may be divided into
two parts. A first part may be common and identical to each entity.
For example, the overall mission plan or the digitized map of the
battlefield.
[0028] A second part may be unique to each entity. For example, a
set of observations made by that entity's sensors that have not
been significant enough to share with other entities or the
identification of information (i.e., a new threat location) that
has just been made and not yet communicated to the rest of the
collaborating entities.
[0029] The mission planning subsystem 30 may execute the current
plan and make changes to the plan as the mission unfolds. The
mission planning subsystem 30 may also develop alternative mission
plans (predictive in nature) to evaluate potential changes. For
example, there may be several significant situations that arise and
would initiate a replan such as a commander changing the high level
mission, a pop-up threat, and/or one of the entities, important to
the mission, developing an engine problem. The communications
subsystem 60 may communicate changes to mission plans, flight
plans, CROP changes, etc., as necessary, to the other entities
comprising the team of collaborating entities.
[0030] The rules engine 50 may be preloaded prior to a mission
start with a set of configurable rules that changes during the
mission may be evaluated against. Example rules may include a less
than fifty meter deviation from the flight path on egress is not
significant, a deviation of greater than 1 km from the flight path
during any part of the mission must be evaluated as to impact on
minimum mission success, and/or a significant deviation from the
flight path is not significant if the mission's success is not
jeopardized. Part of this evaluation may be completed by the
mission-planning engine 30.
[0031] Initially, a change may be stored in the CROP 20. The
evaluation process may thereby be initiated. The change may then be
sent to the Evaluator 40, which may have an algorithm evaluating
the change against the preset rules stored in the Rules Engine 50.
If the change is deemed to be insignificant (i.e., less than a
preset threshold), the change may be ignored. This may terminate
the evaluation.
[0032] If a change appears to be immediately significant to an
individual entity's sub-mission, the Evaluator 40 may act by
executing a mission replan for that individual entity. The
completed mission replan may then be sent to the Evaluator 40 for
evaluation against an overall mission plan for the entire team of
entities. Even with an apparent large change facing an individual
entity, the individual entity may be able to reform and continue
it's submission with every expectation of success.
[0033] For example, a deviation in a flight path of one kilometer
may appear to be significant. However, the team may be able to
continue the mission without a significant deviation to the overall
mission. No communication may be immediately necessary. This
communication may thereby receive a medium priority and be
scheduled for transmission when the burden on the communications
channel is light.
[0034] Conversely, under some circumstances (i.e., limited
remaining fuel, etc.), a change may continue to be significant and
may jeopardize mission success. An individual entity may have a
fuel problem that would cause the entity to be unable to rendezvous
with the other entities and continue with a larger team of entities
to complete the mission. In this case, the communication may have a
high priority and may be executed immediately. Lower priority
messages and changes may wait until higher priority messages are
executed.
[0035] The system 10 thus provides greater efficiency and control
over the magnitude of communications between battlefield entities,
the burden upon limited communication channel(s), priority and
scheduling of critical communication, and/or mission replanning.
The system 10 also provides communication and mission management
integrated in a way to work together to act on predictions of
mission plans and communication needs in order to handle varying
situations.
[0036] The Evaluator 40 and Rules Engine 50 of the system 10
provide an efficient mechanism to enable autonomous collaborative
systems to make decisions. The system 10 efficiently utilizes the
communications channel instead of just making the channel larger,
or managing the channel on the basis of a prediction of the maximum
statistical aggregation of communication burden on the channel.
[0037] The system 10 may control the priority, schedule, and timing
of communications between collaborating teams of autonomous
vehicles thereby providing a deterministic and efficient use of
communications channels. The system 10 may be of practicable use to
many military and commercial applications (FIG. 2).
[0038] In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the
present invention, the following discussion is intended to provide
a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in
which the various aspects of the present invention may be
implemented. While the invention has been described above in the
general context of computer-executable instructions of a computer
program that runs on a computer, those skilled in the art will
recognize that the invention also may be implemented in combination
with other program modules.
[0039] Generally, program modules include routines, programs,
components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or
implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled
in the art will appreciate that the inventive methods may be
practiced with other computer system configurations, including
single-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers,
mainframe computers, as well as personal computers, hand-held
computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer
electronics, and the like. The illustrated aspects of the invention
may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where
tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked
through a communications argument model. However, some, if not all
aspects of the invention can be practiced on stand-alone computers.
In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be
located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
[0040] An exemplary system for implementing the various aspects of
the invention includes a conventional server computer, including a
processing unit, a system memory, and a system bus that couples
various system components including the system memory to the
processing unit. The processing unit may be any of various
commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors and other
multi-processor architectures also can be used as the processing
unit. The system bus may be any of several types of bus structure
including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and
a local bus using any of a variety of conventional bus
architectures. The system memory includes read only memory (ROM)
and random access memory (RAM). A basic input/output system (BIOS),
containing the basic routines that help to transfer information
between elements within the server computer, such as during
start-up, is stored in ROM.
[0041] The server computer further includes a hard disk drive, a
magnetic disk drive, e.g., to read from or write to a removable
disk, and an optical disk drive, e.g., for reading a CD-ROM disk or
to read from or write to other optical media. The hard disk drive,
magnetic disk drive, and optical disk drive are connected to the
system bus by a hard disk drive interface, a magnetic disk drive
interface, and an optical drive interface, respectively. The drives
and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile
storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions,
etc., for the server computer. Although the description of
computer-readable media above refers to a hard disk, a removable
magnetic disk and a CD, it should be appreciated by those skilled
in the art that other types of media which are readable by a
computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital
video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, and the like, may also be used
in the exemplary operating environment, and further that any such
media may contain computer-executable instructions for performing
the methods of the present invention.
[0042] A number of program modules may be stored in the drives and
RAM, including an operating system, one or more application
programs, other program modules, and program data. A user may enter
commands and information into the server computer through a
keyboard and a pointing device, such as a mouse. Other input
devices (not shown) may include a microphone, a joystick, a game
pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like. These and other
input devices are often connected to the processing unit through a
serial port interface that is coupled to the system bus, but may be
connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, a game port
or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor or other type of display
device is also connected to the system bus via an interface, such
as a video adapter. In addition to the monitor, computers typically
include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as
speaker and printers.
[0043] The server computer may operate in a networked environment
using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as
a remote client computer. The remote computer may be a workstation,
a server computer, a router, a peer device or other common network
node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described
relative to the server computer. The logical connections include a
local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN). Such
networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide
computer networks, intranets and the internet.
[0044] When used in a LAN networking environment, the server
computer is connected to the local network through a network
interface or adapter. When used in a WAN networking environment,
the server computer typically includes a modem, or is connected to
a communications server on the LAN, or has other means for
establishing communications over the wide area network, such as the
internet. The modem, which may be internal or external, is
connected to the system bus via the serial port interface. In a
networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the
server computer, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote
memory storage device. It will be appreciated that the network
connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a
communications link between the computers may be used.
[0045] In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the
art of computer programming, the present invention has been
described with reference to acts and symbolic representations of
operations that are performed by a computer, such as the server
computer, unless otherwise indicated. Such acts and operations are
sometimes referred to as being computer-executed. It will be
appreciated that the acts and symbolically represented operations
include the manipulation by the processing unit of electrical
signals representing data bits which causes a resulting
transformation or reduction of the electrical signal
representation, and the maintenance of data bits at memory
locations in the memory system (including the system memory, hard
drive, floppy disks, and CD-ROM) to thereby reconfigure or
otherwise alter the computer system's operation, as well as other
processing of signals. The memory locations where such data bits
are maintained are physical locations that have particular
electrical, magnetic, or optical properties corresponding to the
data bits.
[0046] An example system 10 (FIG. 3) in accordance with the present
invention predictively determines data transmitted within a
wireless network in accordance with a mission plan and changes to
the mission plan. The system 10 includes a first team member 1 and
a second team member 2. The first team member 1 includes a first
module 40 for evaluating the changes to the mission plan
encountered by the first team member 1 and determining whether to
transmit information of the change to the second team member 2. The
first team member 1 further includes a second module 50 containing
rules for evaluating changes to the mission plan encountered by the
first team member 1. The first module 40 utilizes the rules of the
second module 50 to predictively alter the mission plan.
[0047] Another example system 10 (FIG. 2) in accordance with the
present invention predictively determines data transmitted by an
entity 1 in accordance with a mission plan and changes to the
mission plan. The system 10 includes a mission planning subsystem
30, a communication subsystem 60, and an evaluator subsystem 40,
50. The mission planning subsystem 30 executes a current mission
plan. The mission planning subsystem 30 further predictively
develops alternative mission plans in order to evaluate potential
mission changes. The communication subsystem 60 communicates
changes to the mission plan to another entity 2. The evaluator
subsystem 40, 50 includes an evaluator 40 and a rules engine 50.
The evaluator 40 receives information concerning a change
encountered by the entity 1 and utilizes rules from the rules
engine 50 for determining whether to communicate the change to the
other entity 2.
[0048] An example computer program product in accordance with the
present invention determines data transmitted by an entity 1 in
accordance with a mission plan and changes to the mission plan. The
computer program product includes a first instruction for storing
the mission plan in a common relevant operating picture 20, a
second instruction for evaluating a change to the mission plan, and
a third instruction for utilizing the second instruction for
determining whether to communicate the change of the mission plan
to another entity 2. The second instruction utilizes predetermined
rules.
[0049] It will be understood that the above description of the
present invention is susceptible to various modifications, changes
and adaptations, and the same are intended to be comprehended
within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims.
For example, the evaluator subsystem 40, 50 may be alternatively
included in the mission planning subsystem 30 or the communication
subsystem 60.
[0050] The presently disclosed embodiments are considered in all
respects to be illustrative, and not restrictive. The scope of the
invention is indicated by the appended claims, rather than the
foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning
and range of equivalence thereof are intended to be embraced
therein.
* * * * *